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  She picked up her glass again and he watched, mesmerized, as she swallowed down the dark purple liquid with big nervous gulps.

  He could have her in a dark corner writhing in the throes of an orgasm in ten minutes, he was confident of that. But something told him this girl would wake up to regret her choices the next morning. Though judging by the steamy scene she had been reading, she clearly had fantasies. Fantasies he could fulfill. He let his hand drift down her cheek once more. This time she didn’t pull away. Feeling bold, he leaned in and whispered. “I want to fuck you into the middle of next week. What do you say we get out of here?”

  Despite the low light, Elijah knew she was blushing, so it surprised him when she leaned back and said, “I would let you, but I have an important appointment on Monday that I just can’t miss.”

  He threw his head back and laughed. Something he probably hadn’t done in weeks. “You are a true delight. A dance then?”

  He stood and offered her his hand. When she looked at her tablet and back to him, he sighed and plucked it from her lap, motioning for a nearby bouncer to come to him. When the burly man stepped forward, he handed the device to him and said, “Keep this safe while the young lady and I dance.”

  • • •

  Holly felt a little lightheaded as the tall, dark-haired stranger led her to the dancefloor. The tune currently thumping was not something she imagined was good for the kind of dancing he likely had in mind, considering his brazen declaration that he wanted to sleep with her.

  That was the type of advance she usually turned her nose up at, but there was something about this man that had her following his lead. Now she found herself being twirled forward and pulled back into his arms. There was something familiar about him, but she couldn’t quite place where she knew his face.

  “It’s impolite to stare,” he said, grinning down at her as the music slowed and he wrapped her in a warm embrace.

  They swayed on the dancefloor to the slower song, and Holly couldn’t get her heart to slow down. She tried to tell herself it was the previous faster beat that had her heart thumping, but she knew it was the stranger that held her as if they were longtime lovers. When she let her head fall onto his shoulder, she inhaled his scent. The aromas of leather and sage, and maybe apples hit her nose. It was an expensive cologne, but it would have to be to get VIP treatment at this club.

  “Do you like my cologne?” he asked low in her ear. God, had she been so obvious about sniffing him? She tried to pull away, but he held her close with one arm and tilted her chin up with his free hand. Without warning, his mouth closed over hers and she swallowed a gasp. He tasted better than he smelled, and he kissed like a dream. Not that she had much to compare it to, but it was better than the descriptions of kisses she read in her romance novels, and certainly better than anything she’d experienced in her short life.

  A low growl erupted from his throat as the music changed speeds again and he twisted her around, pulling her off the dance floor. “Come with me,” he said tightly. Was he angry with her? They were back upstairs, but he didn’t stop at either of their booth’s instead, he murmured to a well-dressed man standing near the upstairs bar. To her surprise, the man gave her a wink as he slipped her companion a key before he tugged her past the bar and down a long corridor.

  “Where are you taking me?” she asked when she finally felt unfrozen.

  “Some place we can be alone,” he said.

  “Wait.” She stopped them in their tracks and nearly stumbled into him when he jerked to a stop and turned to face her directly. “I don’t even know your name.”

  His lips turned up in a small smile. “Call me Eli.” Without waiting for her response, he gripped her hand and once more led them down the hallway. When they got to a solid black door at the end, he slipped the key in and unlocked it. It was a spacious office with a large L-shaped sofa that dominated two walls.

  With the door closed behind them, he pushed her against the wall and swooped in for another searing kiss. It was just as mind blowing as the first kiss and Holly felt wetness gather between her thighs. Bending, he lifted her and moved them to the couch, where he gently lowered her and hovered above her.

  “Christ, you’re beautiful,” he said in a husky voice. “I need you to know I don’t normally do this kind of thing, but you’re irresistible. Is this OK? You don’t strike me as the type to do this sort of thing either.”

  Her brain was telling her now was the time to back out. She didn’t sleep with strangers in night clubs. But her pussy apparently had another thought in mind, because she nodded her consent. Eli wasted no time unbuttoning her jeans so he could tug them down with her panties. The cool air of the room brushed across her sex and she gasped. Eli just grinned before he slid a hand between her legs.

  “Oh, baby,” he breathed when his fingers met her slick arousal. “You’re fucking soaked for me.”

  Holly whimpered as his finger brushed her already swollen clit. The orgasm wouldn’t be far off if he kept that up. He worked her into a frenzy, stroking and rubbing small circles on her sensitive nub. She writhed on the couch, simultaneously trying to pull away and draw him closer as the orgasm slowly began to build. “That’s it, baby,” he whispered. His eyes stayed trained on her as he worked her pussy gently to climax. “Come for me, gorgeous.”

  The orgasm came hard and fast, coursing through her entire body causing her to moan louder than she wanted to.

  “Fuck,” Eli swore and jumped up from his spot between her thighs. Two seconds later, his phone was to his ear.

  “This better be a God damned emergency,” he bit out. If he hadn’t seemed so irritated, Holly might have giggled at the situation.

  Eli’s face went red and his free hand clenched into a fist. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes maybe thirty if traffic fucks me.”

  Holly was already standing to button her jeans when he lowered the phone and turned to her.

  “I’m very sorry…” She watched his face twist as he realized he didn’t know her name either.

  “Holly,” she said helpfully.

  “Holly. I’m sorry but I have to leave,” he said as, to her surprise, he tossed her his cell phone. “Put your number in there. I have to see you again.”

  With shaky fingers, Holly navigated to the contacts of the sleek smart phone. This looked like a model that hadn’t been released to the public yet. When her number was in his phone, she clicked over to the text screen and sent herself a message. No sense in not getting his number while she was at it.

  Eli closed the distance between them and yanked her to him, pressing his lips to hers for a quick, rough kiss. “I’ll call you,” he said gruffly, and then he was gone.

  Chapter Two

  “When does your flight in from Colorado get here? We need to find the fuckers who did this, now.” Elijah barked into the phone as he stared at the smoke billowing from what used to be a diamond production lab.

  “We know who did it, Elijah. Nicholas Sutton has been after us since the day we rolled out the first line of colored man-made diamonds with David,” Patrick said. “We should land in about half an hour. I got in the air as fast as I could.”

  Elijah pulled a hand through his hair. “I’ll have a driver waiting for you. Do you want to come to my office or the lab… what’s left of it anyway.”

  “I want to see it. I’ll meet you there.”

  Elijah jabbed at his screen and shoved the phone into his pocket. He wanted to text Holly, the pretty girl from the club, but he had to concentrate on this mess.

  Someone—likely a crony of Nicholas Sutton—had set this fire and now they would have to halt production while they sourced new equipment and a new location if they couldn’t rebuild here.

  The fire marshal was supposed to be coming to talk to him, but so far Elijah hadn’t seen him. While he waited, he pulled out his phone again and dialed his assistant. The woman answered groggily.

  “I need a car at the airstrip in thirty minutes to p
ick up Patrick Sutton, and I need a change of clothes brought to my office in an hour.”

  “It’s almost two in the morning,” she mumbled.

  Elijah glared at the phone. “And this is what I pay you for. If you can’t handle it don’t bother coming back to work.”

  Assistants were the bane of his existence, and if he could get away without one, he would. Unfortunately, running multiple companies required him to be in too many places at once. Someday he would find the person to be his right hand, but until then he had to put up with the incompetent people HR seemed to find for him.

  An hour later, Elijah still hadn’t talked to the fire marshal. As he stalked in front of his car, getting angrier by the minute, Patrick arrived.

  “It’s about damn time you got here,” he snapped when his friend and business partner stepped out of the SUV.

  “Get your head out of your ass. I got here as fast as humanly possible.”

  Elijah combed his fingers through his hair. “Sorry. I’m just amped up and I can’t get anyone here to talk to me.”

  “So, threaten people. You’re Elijah fucking Barrett. That means something in this state.”

  It was true, and Elijah had no problem throwing his weight around, but he hated the idea of doing it to public servants like the fire department. But he was fed up. As he turned to go and find the elusive fire marshal, the man in question stepped from the still smoldering building. Now Elijah felt like an ass for getting angry.

  “I apologize for keeping you waiting, Mr. Barrett. There was a lot to see in there. I can say with absolute certainty that it was arson, and we’ll be opening an official criminal investigation.”

  “My staff and I will cooperate fully, Marshal,” Elijah said, offering the man his hand.

  The marshal pulled his hand back. “Covered in soot. Wouldn’t want to ruin such a nice shirt.”

  Elijah looked down at the silk shirt. It was likely a lost cause at this point, with the smoke saturating it, but he lowered his hand and gave the man a nod instead.

  “Thank you for being out here. Please let me know what we can do to help.”

  Patrick stepped forward then and introduced himself. “Patrick Sutton of Eastman Enterprises. When can we get into the building and see if there’s anything to salvage?”

  Marshal Davis grimaced. “I’m pretty sure everything but the vault will be a total loss, but you’re welcome to check it out once it’s safe. It will probably be a few days before it gets cleared for civilians though. My team will be in there all day tomorrow to investigate. Maybe middle of next week?”

  Elijah watched Patrick’s shoulders sag in relief. At least their current inventory was still in the vault.

  “Marshall, what are the chances that one of your men could get us into that vault tonight? Our insurance provider is going to want to see that the inventory is unharmed,” Elijah said.

  Davis turned and looked at the building. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said with a terse nod.

  “Have you started the insurance claim?” Patrick asked when the marshal walked away.

  Elijah shook his head. “Not yet. I barely managed to get my incompetent excuse of an assistant to get you a car. I didn’t want to burden her with doing her actual job.”

  Patrick chuckled and shook his head. “I can tell you’re about to be on the hunt again. What’s this, four in the last nine months?”

  Elijah shot him a scowl. “It’s not my fault none of them are competent.”

  “You mean none of them are perfect?”

  He tagged Patrick on the shoulder with a gentle bump of his fist. “Mind your own business. At least I’m not stuck with Lydia.”

  It was Patrick’s turn to scowl. “She’s going to be so pissed at me for this.”

  Elijah just grinned. Lydia was David Eastman’s old assistant, and Patrick had inherited her when he took over as acting CEO of David’s company while he underwent cancer treatment.

  “What are you thinking?” Elijah asked when Patrick’s expression grew thoughtful.

  “Nothing. I just might have someone in mind for you if you do fire your assistant.”

  Elijah rolled his eyes. It was probably some pretty college graduate Patrick wanted to sleep with and couldn’t hire for himself. David had a strict no fraternization policy in place at his company. Elijah had no such policy at the Barrett Corporation. That might be part of why he couldn’t find a competent assistant come to think of it.

  “There’s nothing else to be done tonight other than talk to the insurance company. I’m going to park Dale here in case they get us into the vault. Let’s go back to my office.”

  Elijah passed his instructions to Dale, the driver who had picked up Patrick, before sliding behind the wheel of his own car.

  The sun was nearly up before Dale arrived at his office with the diamonds. Patrick had gone to his L.A. apartment for some sleep, but Elijah stayed in his office and dozed on the couch while they waited for an insurance representative.

  Elijah stood at his window now and watched the sun brighten the Los Angeles sky. His office was across the interstate from most of the other skyscrapers, so he had a perfect view of the busy skyline and it was one of his favorites in the world. He especially enjoyed the way it changed as new buildings went up, and occasionally an old building came down.

  His smart phone was in his hand and he scrolled the morning headlines absently. News of the fire had hit local news, but it wasn’t a national story. Hopefully it would stay that way. What was Holly doing right now? Was she sleeping? His finger hovered over the text messaging icon. Now wasn’t the time though. He had to focus on finding out which of Nicholas Sutton’s cronies had set his lab on fire.

  • • •

  Sunlight streamed through Holly’s window and she blinked rapidly against the brightness of it. Instinctively, she reached for her phone and checked her notifications. There were no missed calls or texts from the mysterious Eli. It had been two days. So much for him needing to see her again. Feeling sour, she pulled herself out of bed and into the shower. Just to annoy her nemesis, Troy Wilson, she pulled on a navy-blue suit for her trip to the Sutton Foundation headquarters later that day. It gave her a little ray of brightness in her day to know that her outfit would irk him.

  When she reached the office, Troy was waiting for her. His nose wrinkled as his gaze traveled her outfit. But he seemed to be rather cheery for some reason.

  “Good news, Miss Sutton. We have installed the new calling system. Soon you won’t have to make so many donor calls.”

  Holly looked at him as if he’d grown a second head. “What are you talking about? I actually enjoy donor calls.”

  “Yes, but you waste so much time on the small donors. Now you can focus on the big fish.”

  “I have literally no idea what you’re talking about Mr. Wilson. Maybe you should explain.”

  He motioned for her to come into his office and Holly did so reluctantly. “It’s a new robo-calling system that’s better than anything currently on the market. We’ll have you record a few things, and from then on, the system will handle all the phone calls. It’s brilliant.”

  “Aren’t those illegal?”

  “Not if you stick to certain guidelines. I assure you, our attorneys are making sure everything is above board.”

  Holly eyed him skeptically. “OK. I’ll set the legality aside. What about personalization? We’ll want to change up the recordings and automated responses from time to time, won’t we?”

  “That’s the beauty of this new system. We have you say a very specific set of words and phrases. Then, we take all the recordings of your previous calls that we keep for legal reasons and we have the AI listen to hundreds of hours of them. It trains itself to talk like you. It’s groundbreaking really.”

  “That sounds terrifying. I would really rather just keep making the phone calls myself.”

  “You still can. We just need you focused on our more influential donors. We won’t use robocalli
ng with them.”

  Holly wanted to growl in frustration. He just didn’t get it. The big donors were important, and she could schmooze them at the expensive galas, but the small dollar donors were her real passion. They were the ones who could affect the most change because they wanted nothing in return for their donation except a bumper sticker.

  But she didn’t growl. Instead she offered him a tight smile and stood. “It all sounds very fascinating, Mr. Wilson. I’m sure you’ll tell me when you need me to do this recording. I’ll be in my office until then.”

  To his credit, Troy didn’t try to keep her any longer. Once back at her desk, Holly pulled up her call list for the day and got to work. A few minutes later, her phone sounded the text alert and her heart skipped a beat. Could it be him?

  It was just Patrick.

  If you’re still interested in a job, I might have a lead. Send me your resume.

  Holly clicked the phone icon and brought the phone to her ear. “What kind of job is it?” she asked when he answered.

  Patrick laughed. “Eager, are we?”

  “Maybe. Now spill.”

  “I probably shouldn’t have said anything. I don’t want to get your hopes up. Just trust me and send me the resume. I’ll keep you in the loop if anything comes of it.”

  Holly sighed. “You’re really not going to tell me anything?”

  “Nope. I gotta get back to work, sis. I love you.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I love you too. I’ll send you the resume later today.”

  As she set the phone down, a voice behind her startled her. “Resume for what?”

  Whirling, she brought a hand to her chest. “Grant, you scared me. Spying now?”

  He gave her a terse chuckle. “I just wanted to see if you’re free for lunch. I was in the neighborhood. Why are you sending people your resume?”

  Holly waved her hand dismissively. “It’s just a temp thing for Patrick. I’m doing him a favor,” she lied.

  Grant’s expression told her he wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t say anything else. “What about lunch?” he asked.